American Horror Story season one: revisiting the Murder House

It's no secret that one of my favorite shows is American Horror Story. The show is about to start it's third season, although technically each season is actually a stand-alone mini-series so the show is an anthology of different narratives instead of a multi-season show. This, I think, has helped make it such a strong show since the writers can go into each season with a set narrative arc and they don't end up introducing red herrings or side plots that go nowhere. But, when AHS's pilot episode premiered almost two years ago, we didn't know that the structure was going to go that way. Questions about how they would maintain the freshness of the story for more than a season were often at the forefront of my mind. Now that I know better, it's even more exciting to revisit the first season. Since I know what the vision was to its completion, there are all sorts of clues, themes, and nuances to pick up on. I'm planning to go over each episode and look into the time line of the Murder House (for those who watched it already, you'll know that the show frequently used flashbacks to show different points in the house's history, not necessarily in order), and look into some overarching themes that show up. I'll try to avoid outright spoilers, but since I know what's coming obviously what I choose to focus on will be influenced since I know what's coming. So without further ado, let's step in the front door of that gorgeous evil house for the pilot episode.

How Many Robot Fights is Too Many? Suspension of Disbelief and "Pacific Rim"

Over the summer, I managed to catch a few movies in the theater. One of those was Pacific Rim, a sci-fi film stemming from the Godzilla tradition. It was my husband and his friend's pick, but I was definitely willing to give it a shot mostly owing to the involvement of Guillermo del Toro. I loved del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and The Orphanage, and read his Strain trilogy (perhaps more on that another time), so I'm willing to give him a chance even outside of genres that normally draw me in. And Pacific Rim was pretty fun; it had some interesting characters, in particular the female lead Mako Mori who subverts some traditional movie tropes. But, my nitpick-y self had some issues with it, and after watching the movie I spent a lot of time thinking about where I draw the line in my suspension of disbelief. Spoilers follow.